


Tarmac Smackdown

by somelikeithoth (SuckaNucka)



Series: Beginnings [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Character Study, F/M, First Love, First Meetings, Fluff, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:21:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24366496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuckaNucka/pseuds/somelikeithoth
Summary: On the tarmac of the rebel base, Poe Dameron runs into - literally - someone he thought he would never see again.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Beginnings [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1759264
Kudos: 2





	Tarmac Smackdown

**Author's Note:**

> I found a bunch of Star Wars fanfic while cleaning out my google drive and I still liked it so I decided to clean it up and post it. This is a small series of ficlets I wrote pre-TROS, in 2018, to help flesh out Poe's character a bit more. Part character study, part self-indulgent original characters that won't leave me alone. 
> 
> These fics are Poe-centric and take place before TFA. They explore Poe's past relationship, his time in the navy, and his life in the rebel alliance before he met Finn and co. Could be seen as a stand-alone or as a prequel to my FinnPoe fic Scorpio Rising.

The tarmac buzzed. It was the first time Amika Vao-Lark, a Rebel medic, had been on solid ground in several days. She strode through the crowd on D’Qar with one purpose: to sleep in a bed that wasn’t wrapped in durasteel and suspended in a void. The mission had been one long mindless, unfurling bandage. The sky was overcast and the air was humid and muggy. Amika’s sore, wobbly feet stepped one in front of the other while her mind ran a never-ending supercut of the last two weeks. Assess. Bandage. Move. Assess. Bandage. Move. Ad nauseum.   
Mired in her own thoughts, it was three seconds too late when she saw him. A pilot with dark messy hair in bright orange coveralls swerved to his left. Amika went to her right. It was too late to stop the collision course. Limbs tangled and hit the duracrete with a thud. Their foreheads met with a nice smack. The pilot moaned quickly covering his face and Amika found herself embarrassed. Quickly she rolled off of him, to ashamed to look at him straight. “Oh fuck, I’m so sorry. Sorry, sorry,” She stood and wrung out her hands and tried to escape the scene as soon as possible. Her head throbbed and the ground spun, but she had to get away.  
“Hey you, wait!” the man called out. Amika swiveled around in dread. Surely she hadn’t just rammed into a superior officer and now she was about to be chewed out. God she just wanted to go to home.   
Head bowed Amika returned sheepishly. “Sir, I’m so sorry, I should have been looking where I was going, I-”  
“Hey, are you alright?” The man asked, gently touching her shoulder. “We had a nice pile up there.” Amika raised her eyes. The pilot was not unattractive, and he had lovely brown eyes. But it wasn’t his countenance that stole her breath, it was the name she noticed on the way there.  
Dameron. As in, Captain Poe Dameron of Rapier Squadron. Oh, s h i t.  
“Oh, I’m fine,” Amika insisted. She was fucked in about five different ways right now but her biggest concern was getting away from Poe Dameron as quickly as possible. “Really, I’m fine.” Poe’s eye’s narrowed at her. This was it. Amika was about to get into so much trouble. _Does running down your superior officer count as assault?_ Amika wondered.  
Then, “Have we met?” Poe asked.  
Amika said, “Huh?”  
Poe studied her more. She tried to seem relaxed.  
“I think I know you from somewhere…” Poe scratched his chin.  
“I mean no respect sir, but I think I would remember if I met-”  
Poe gasped. Amika was cut off by a crushing bear hug. Just when things couldn’t get any stranger, she swore she heard Poe babbling something about the Republic Navy, but she couldn’t be quite sure if she was hearing him right. With her ear crushed into his chest all she heard was the husky reverb of his voice.  
Finally, Poe let go, and with hands firmly on either shoulder, he grinned ear to ear. “Stars, I never thought I’d see you again. You saved my life, you know?”  
Before Amika could answer, a black woman with wild blonde hair called out over Poe’s shoulder, “Dameron! I don’t know what that poor medic did to you, but if you aren’t ready for take off in 30 seconds your ass is grass!”

Poe merely laughed at the threat. Poe thumped Amika on the shoulders like a jock, and before taking off, he said “ _Goddamn_ , I can’t believe I found you! We’ll catch up when I get back, okay?”  
“Okay?” Amika guessed.  
Poe dissipated into the crowded tarmac. Amika was left bewildered and somewhat dubious of what she had just agreed to.

* * *

  
Amika threw her duffel on an exam table in the medbay unceremoniously. The sterile scent of bleach and saline was a welcoming comfort to her. The emergency section of the medbay that she and her partner, Trift, usually occupied was separated from the rest of the medical bay, connected to the rest of the military medbay by long white hallways. The room was pentagon shaped, with a reception area in the middle, where a few scary looking medical droids filed reports. In the main area, nine beds were pushed against three walls in groups of three. Just off the main entrance, the fourth wall had doors leading to emergency ORs for priority I patients. The fifth wall of the pentagon lead to two on-call rooms where the on-call medics slept. Each small on-call room had five beds; two sets of bunks and one cot. For most, a trip to the medbay was not high on the list of favorite place to go, but for Amika, it was the best home she had ever known.  
“What’s wrong, Lark? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Her partner, Trift chirped. He was seated on a stool stitching up the knee of a zabrak. Her often chipper partner had tawny skin and amber eyes, leading you to believe he was from somewhere arid, like Tatooine or Jakku, but those features were in stark contrast to the shock of white hair he possessed. For all she could surmise, Amika assumed it was natural.   
“I think I just met Poe Dameron.” Amika said blankly. She collapsed onto one of the beds and rubbed her hands over her face.   
“Like, as in _Captain Poe Dameron?_ Nice!” Trift exclaimed, and then, “Sorry,” to the zabrak’s knee he had just jerked. “Poe is a great guy. Or at least from what I know. I’ve only talked to him like three times. But he always seems super cool!” Trift babbled on. If the young zabrak was listening they weren't giving it away. Trift quickly placed a bandage and sent him on his way. Then Trift spun in his chair and said, “Listen, I know that Poe can be a bit intense but, what’s that face for?” 

“Did he ever mention the  _ Navy  _ to you?” Amika raised her head slightly.

“Hmmm, no, I don't think he has. Did I mention I’ve only talked to him three times?”   
“I think I saved his life when he was in the Navy,” Amika said.  
“ _Wait,_ ” Trift exclaimed. “You mean you guys were in the Republic Navy at the same time?”  
“Yeah, ” Amika said. “At least, I think so?”

* * *

  
  
"Knock, knock, bloodsuckers,” Poe Rapped on the door frame of the medbay.  
“Dameron. To what do we owe this pleasure to?” one of the medical droids said flatly.  
“Contrary to popular belief, I'm not here for a drug test this time, I'm looking for a girl who works here, about my height?" Poe demonstrated accordingly with his hands.  
A blue twi'lek cocked an eyebrow from behind a phlebotomy station. "You're gonna have to be a bit more specific than that, hon."  
"Uh, she has green eyes and short sunset-y hair with a long Jedi-looking braid fashioned into a headband? " Poe tried.  
"Oh. You're looking for Lark," she said   
"Am I? See I don't really know her name."  
"Please. There's only one person on the whole rebel base who dresses like that," she snorted.  
"That's funny, cuz I think I would have remembered her. See she's an old navy buddy and she saved my life." Poe touched his chest, putting emphasis on life.  
"Right." The twi’lek continued to file her nails. Then, she called loudly, "LARK, YOUR BOYFRIEND IS HERE!" There was a distinct clatter of medical instruments hitting the floor from a distant room.

Amika walked into the room somewhat embarrassed as she dried her hands with a towel. "Shasta, I told you, Trift and I are only partners in a....platonic and professional sense...." Amika trailed.   
  
Poe rushed over to her and shook her hands with both of his. "Hi I'm Poe Dameron and you saved my life. Crashlanding, dislocated shoulder, compound fracture? Ring any bells?” Poe hurried through. “I begged you to leave me there and you dragged me to safety.”   
  
Amika gasped. "You're the pilot who fell from the sky,"   
"I prefer the term emergency landing, but yes, that would be me."


End file.
